Thread by @xuanalogue

What I've been doing this week instead of research: Fighting MIT's ridiculous, inhumane decision to stop funding overseas students unless they return by Jan 30 to the US. IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC.

We sent an open letter (450+ signatures) in response: tinyurl.com/mit-overseas-f…

MIT's explanation? For the Jan 30 deadline, their interpretation of the 5-month absence rule for overseas students. EXCEPT that the rule is reported to be suspended:

https://twitter.com/karinfischer/status/1337117356389122049

As this student points out, MIT could do much better:
#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

MIT also cites "increasing challenges", logistically and financially, for its decision. What do students hear?
"Let's outsource all the financial and logistical burden from administrators to already over-burdened students."

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

This decision comes off as deeply hypocritical. MIT decried the July 6 ICE Student Ban as "arbitrary and capricious" for giving students just 2 months notice. Now it is doing exactly the same.

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

OPEN LETTER: tinyurl.com/mit-overseas-f…

MIT's new policy also puts student & public health at irresponsible & unjustified risk. It goes against MIT Medical's own guidance against personal travel. It forces students to make a choice they wouldn't have otherwise.

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

@CambMA @CityOfBoston

Students *may* get exempted if "instructed by a
medical provider not to travel", but the forms suggest only conditions like "Active Cancer" or "Liver Disease" count. What about the mere fact that the US has 200,000 new cases of COVID per day? What doctor would recommend travel??

The exemption policy also ignores the immense logistical and mental health burden of uprooting oneself in a pandemic -- a period of intense social isolation -- only to return to a country without family, and very few chances to meet friends.

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

It doesn't help that MIT, after failing to give any indication that this might happen, or involving impacted students at all, announced this policy *right before final exams*.

Speaking of which, I should probably start studying for those.🙃

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

Even department administrators, incidentally, were caught-off-guard by MIT's announcement.

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

So much for MIT being a "world leader" in its institutional response to COVID-19.

OPEN LETTER: tinyurl.com/mit-overseas-f…

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

Reading story after story from impacted students has just made me so incredibly angry & upset.

I am thankfully in a safe household in the US now. But I remember breaking down in tears when the ICE ruling came out. Now MIT is doing it to students overseas. I just want to scream.

Please RT and share widely. I don't trust MIT to do what's right unless it knows everyone is watching. #PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

Here again is our open letter: tinyurl.com/mit-overseas-f…
And here is where you can sign: forms.gle/LRwNxF2sFjjGQe…

Incidentally, Columbia tried to do this to their grad students in the Fall, as @insidehighered / @ElizRedden reports, and were faced with massive & immediate condemnation. You'd think universities would learn by now. 🙃

insidehighered.com/news/2020/08/1…

#PayYourStudents #StopRiskingLives

They had to walk back that decision not long after, as the @ColumbiaSpec reports.

(@thetech, if you're looking for a newsworthy story...)

columbiaspectator.com/news/2020/08/1…

An update from MIT's info session today!

"We are now able to be as flexible as possible in review requests."

This is a real change from the original medical exemption policy. Student pressure works! Still not fully reassured though, we'll see what they put in writing...